President Obama leaves Chicago's O'Hare International Airport
on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012. Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP.
Figures released on Thursday show that President Barack Obama‘s re-election campaign, Obama For America (OFA), raised in excess of $42 million in the last three months of 2011, while the Democratic National Committee (DNC) boosted its funds by over $24 million over the same period. This means that, for the whole of 2011, donations to the president’s re-election campaign and the DNC totaled a staggering $244 million.
Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, confirmed in a video emailed to the president’s supporters that 583,000 individuals had made a donation in the last quarter of 2011. Among those, around 200,000 had contributed to the campaign’s fund for the very first time. Mr. Messina said that, on average, each donation amounted to $55 and that the majority (98 percent) of the donations were less than $250.
However, Mr. Messina was keen to stress that, despite successful fund raising campaigns, OFA still required more donors. He explained that, when supporters hear about such large sums, they “think we don’t need their money, or they don’t need to give now,” when in fact “there is no secret strategy that we can count on. There is no cavalry. There’s only you.”
Describing the enthusiasm the president’s supporters had shown compared with backers of the various Republican candidates, Mr. Messina said that it was “in stark contrast to what we’ve seen on the other side.” However, unlike the Republican presidential hopefuls, Mr. Obama is not competing against other primary candidates.
Commenting on the newly released figures, Kirsten Kukowski of the Republican National Committee said that “the White House may try to pretend the president isn’t focused on his re-election but Americans know he’s more interested in campaigning to save his own job than creating jobs for our country’s unemployed.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama traveled to Chicago for a series of fund raising events. One of these took place in a private residence, with tickets fetching $35,800 per couple. At another similar event, ticket prices were more affordable, starting at a mere $7,500.
